1. Technical Field
Various aspects of the present invention relate to order fulfillment systems and, more particularly, to order fulfillment systems for enabling a recipient to receive an ordered product from one of a plurality of providers and, optionally, delivering a virtual representation of the ordered product to the recipient as well.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, electronic orders can be placed via websites tailored for individual providers. Each of such websites generally offers for sale a set of products to be provided by a predetermined individual provider or family of related providers sponsoring the website.
When placing an order via one of these conventional electronic order systems, a customer can select a delivery method. The customer may be presented with an option to have an ordered product delivered to a specified address, or to pick up the ordered product from a physical store. If store pick-up is selected, the customer must specify a particular store so that the ordered product can be reserved for pick-up in the selected store. Additionally, when picking up the ordered product, the customer must present physical evidence of having electronically purchased the product. Such physical evidence can include an order number, print-out of the order confirmation, the credit card used to make the purchase, or various combinations of these.
Instead of purchasing a product for oneself, the customer may choose to purchase a gift for a recipient party. Examples of such gifts include physical products, virtual flowers, and gift certificates. If the gift is a physical product, options of delivery methods are the same as the delivery options available when the customer purchases the physical product for himself. If the gift is a virtual bouquet of flowers, an image of flowers may be mailed to the recipient's email address.
Alternatively, if the gift is a gift certificate, an electronic confirmation may be sent to the customer, the recipient, or both. The electronic confirmation may arrive via email, and may include an image representing the gift certificate. To redeem the gift certificate via an electronic order system, the recipient enters unique identification data associated with the gift certificate when placing an order. Such unique identification data evidences the recipient's possession of the gift certificate. Alternatively, the gift certificate may be redeemable at a physical location of the provider by displaying some form of the gift certificate, such as a print-out or a physical gift card. If evidence of the gift certificate is lost, the recipient generally has no way to redeem the gift certificate.
Conventional electronic order fulfillment systems have at least a few drawbacks. First, they are tailored to a predetermined sponsoring provider, and only offer products that can be provided by the sponsoring provider. Second, customers must specify an exact location for picking up an ordered product. Third, recipients of gift certificates are burdened by having to retain and present evidence of their gift certificates upon making a purchase.
Therefore, there is a need for an order fulfillment system enabling a customer to place an order for a product for himself or another recipient without limitation to a single provider or family of providers. In an exemplary embodiment, such an order fulfillment system may electronically notify the recipient of the order, and the electronic notification may, in some instances, comprise delivery of a virtual representation of the ordered product or service. There is a further need for an order fulfillment system allowing the recipient to pick up the ordered product or service from a provider selected by the recipient, and at a physical location selected by the recipient. Additionally, it is desirable that neither the customer nor the recipient be required to pre-specify a provider or physical pick-up location. It is further desirable that the order fulfillment system need not require the recipient to present an order confirmation upon redemption of the order. It is to such an order fulfillment system that some embodiments of the present invention are directed.